Cast your mind back to the end of August and it was impossible not to think Hull City had signed an excellent central defender on a season’s loan.

Michael Hector had scarcely put a foot wrong in those opening five games of this campaign. There had been confidence and assurance, as well as the talent befitting a player under contract with Chelsea until 2020.

The Championship appeared to be hold no concerns for Hector after a season in the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfurt but four and a half months later it is a division making his life very difficult.

In a City side flirting with relegation to League One, Hector is struggling to show the pedigree that won him a move to Stamford Bridge in 2015. The recent clean sheets underlined a collective defensive improvement but Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Sunderland made for uncomfortable viewing.

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Each member of City’s defence failed to deliver at the Stadium of Light. Full-backs Ola Aina and Fikayo Tomori were neither here nor there, while the central pairing of Hector and Michael Dawson were given the run around by an attacking duo that had started just two league games between them ahead of the weekend.

Michael Hector of Hull City (Image: Focus)

Joel Asoro, scorer of the only goal, and Josh Maja had the pace and enthusiasm to cause City problems throughout. The first half, in particular, they stretched the visitors’ defence out of shape time and again.

City’s midfield, out-fought by their hosts in an alarming first half, did their defensive team-mates few favours but a rearguard breached only three times in its previous five league and cup games played as if they were strangers.

Hector, like so many, appears to be playing without confidence. Distribution has not been up to scratch and those costly mistakes, such as the sloppy fouls conceded against Middlesbrough and Fulham, have added up to chip away at the assertive figure City welcomed to the KCOM Stadium back in August.

Michael Hector of Hull City heads goalwards from a corner during the FA Cup match at Ewood Park, Blackburn

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Perhaps Hector needs a significant moment, like a thumping drive blocked inside a crowded Sunderland box late on, to turn his fortunes around but Nigel Adkins, the man who got the best from him at Reading, will have a decision to make when City host Leeds United on Tuesday week.

Ondrej Mazuch’s return to fitness has provided another option at centre-half.

Michael Hector of Hull City misses an opportunity to score during the Championship match against Derby County

The one-time Czech Republic international had impressed before a hamstring injury sent him back to the treatment room away to Leeds last month but can expect his chance back in the side when City host Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup next up.

Adkins has bigger problems at the opposite end of the pitch after failing to score in six of the last seven games but Hector will be vulnerable should Mazuch seize his timely opportunity.